FSB  Ripcord  Association

For Survivors, Family and Friends of the Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord,
101st Airborne Division    Vietnam,   March 12 - July 23, 1970.

Visitors to this page

Recent Updates

Regrets:

Passing of Cpt David Rich 

B/2-319 Arty   Nov 2011

Eulogy and info

Dear Fellow Ripcord Veterans,

We spoke with Keith Nolan's mother, Ulla, last week and she told us her husband, Bill, is not doing well.  He has throat cancer and has been undergoing chemotherapy.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  We'll keep you updated.

George and Mary Murphy

Fast facts about

The Battle of Ripcord

20   Deadliest U.S. Battles of the Vietnam War, 1965 – 1973

 *   LZ Albany alone claimed 155 KIA on Nov 17, making it the single deadliest U.S.  

      action of the war.

     LZ X-Ray resulted in another 79 KIA over two  days, Nov 14 – 16.

** 158 of the KIA were sustained at Dak To over six days, Nov 17 – 23.

Note: Lengthy operations are excluded. Only actions that could be categorized as single or directly related engagements are tabulated.

Source: From VFW magazine, November 2001; reprinted from Sigler, david B. Vietnam Battle Chronology; U.S. Army and marine Corps Combat Operations, 1965 – 1973.

Editor’s Note: Battle deaths in Sigler’s book for FSB Ripcord are listed as 61. Based on keith Nolan’s research a better figure is 75 KIA, including one ARVN interpreter attached to A Co., 2/506^th Infantry. This makes the battle of Fire Base Ripcord the 10^th deadliest battle of the Vietnam War. – Chuck Hawkins, editor

Special thanks go to Rick Blythe (HHC, 2/506) for supplying this information to Ripcord report.

2012 Currahee Reunion in Columbus, GA

NOTES:
(1) The www.506infantry.org/reunion.htm Currahee Reunions and Other Events web page will be updated if more information on these events becomes available.

(2) Registration for the Reunion must be received prior to April 20, 2012.

(3) Registration for the Fort Benning Bus Tour must be received prior to April 4, 2012.

(4) This information is also in the January 2012 issue of The Currahee! newsletter, which you will be receiving, via US Mail, later this month. 

New Members

We welcome all new members to our Ripcord Association

Special thanks to Cowboy Kenn from Prospector's NJ, for all he has done for the Association.

A Letter from Temple University film dept about the documentary

Dear Ripcord Association,

My name is John Daily and I am the film student from Temple University who is making the documentary "Firebase" which tells the story of the battle for Firebase Ripcord and its veterans. First I would like to greatly thank everyone who has already donated to the film, your contributions are incredible and all the students from Temple University were blown away by the level of support you have already given the film. Normally people disregard film students and the potential we have but your help and support has excited us and determined us to do the best work we can. 

As you know we have already reached our goal of $5,000 which will help us complete the 60 minute documentary. All those donations will help go towards getting the memory cards and hard drives to store the interview/archival footage on and also get the materials needed to conduct the interviews with veterans. We are devising a large distribution plan for the documentary as well, so your donations will help cover the costs for film festival submission fees which will allow people all across the country to see the film and help us pursue PBS for major DVD distribution. 

We would also like to screen the documentary at museums and movie theaters in the Philly, DC, NY area but to rent their facilities would cost money as well so any further donations anyone would like to make would all go towards the rental costs for the screening venues. In May we would love to hold a major premiere of the documentary, possibly at the National Constitution Center here in Philadelphia and have a nice ceremony for everyone who attends so additional donations will go towards that as well.

All the students at Temple University are really energetic and excited about this film and the potential it has. The more support we get will help make the film bigger and better and create more possibilities for it to reach a wider audience across America. Your support has already been overwhelming and we can't thank you enough but if you would still like to help the donations are still open. I would also like to publicly thank Frank Marshall for all his help, you are all very lucky to have a man like him apart of your association, without his support this film wouldn't be possible. 

Thank you again, and updates about the film will be coming within the next few weeks as we move towards the interviews. Thank you and take care!

Sincerely, John Daily

Here it is!

Ripcord Report

Newsletter

Winter 2012 # 88

Ripcord  Association

Membership

Roster 

 updated

1/25/12

We have 735 members in our Ripcord Association.

234 are on our Facebook "Ripcord Association Group"

When was the last time you

updated your Membership    If you have moved, changed your e-mail address, etc

Please go to our Membership Page

and fill out the membership Form